NEWPORT BEACH, California -- The whirlwind week has almost reached the game everybody's been waiting for.

Only the head coaches' press conferences remain, and Florida State's Jimbo Fisher is up first.

Follow along for live updates.

** Fisher says the biggest challenge has been keeping emotions in check. "Your emotions can only be at a high level for so long. If you get there too fast, it wears you out."

** Fisher also says Florida State has to stick with what they do well.

** On the turnover on his staff -- Florida State had six guys -- and Fisher said a lot of those guys came from the same coaching tree or knew him. "The philosophical part of your organization. ... that was critical in bringing this staff together."

** Fisher: "I hate for our staff meeting to break up. We get along. They truly like each other."

** Fisher on keeping his team together: "I don't think it'll be tough, because that's who they are. That's what they've been all year."

** Asked if Auburn's running game is "smoke and mirrors," Fisher: "You have to have eye discipline. .... You get yourself out of position, and then they hit you."

** Fisher, about the chance to knock off the BCS streak: "I don't really think about it. I do it for my kids and my fans. Whether it's SEC, Big Ten, Pac-12, it doesn't concern me with who we're playing."

** Fisher, on how he thinks Jameis Winston will react: "He plays with pressure on him every day. He plays every day like it's the national championship."

** Fisher, asked if he goes back to Gus Malzahn's high school film, says that they look at a lot of different things, and there are people on staff "who research all the way back."

** Fisher says he has a book on every coach he's played against going back 10 or 15 years.

** Fisher on Jameis Winston: "He has an effect on our teams. Offense, defense, special teams, he has an effect on all of them."

** Going back to that book of things that happened, Fisher said it's everything, the game plan, the file that changed, all that stuff. "In this business, can you cross over?"

** Asked if he can imagine playing another game 8-10 days after this, Fisher says "We'll adapt, and kids will have to adjust."

** Fisher says that preparing, if he had a national semifinal and had to play in a final, would be just like the regular season. The graduate assistants were working ahead.

** Fisher says Jameis Winston has been "laser-focused" in practice.

** Fisher on whether or not Florida State had to "come back" after adversity and losses in 2012: "We didn't have to come back. We were already there. We're ACC champs."

** Fisher on Charlie Strong at Texas: "Charlie's an excellent coach, a very good guy, excellent recruiter. ... I think you got a very, very good coach."

** Fisher: "You have to teach your guys to think and how to handle situations. Do we have mental conditioning coaches? Yes, we do. They come in and talk to our guys."

** Fisher: "We have a group of guys, just like a tutor for a class, that teach our guys the right attitudes, how to think. ... You talk about destinies and everything else, it comes down to decision-making."

** Fisher, on Bobby Bowden: "Bobby Bowden will always be a piece of Florida State. He made Florida State a brand name. Someone had to start this up, and take it, and do it, and he did it."

** Fisher on who he learned from: "You learn from everything. Nick Saban, Les Miles, other assistant coaches. And no coach ever says this, but my mother and my father. They taught me a lot about leadership."